sotfminifandomcom-20200213-history
Matthew Gourley
Name: Matthew James Gourlay Gender: Male Age: 15 Hobbies and Interests: Soccer, golf, drinking/partying, cross-country, student government Appearance: Matt is 5'10 with plenty of muscles from a long sporting background, though his arms are slightly lacking in comparison to the rest of his body. He keeps his dark blonde hair cut short, sometimes with a very short fauxhawk in the center, as if he didn't really care how distinctive it was. He often cuts his hair so that he has a small, slightly squarish widow's peak. While he has the body of a strong athlete, his face greatly offsets it. He has a very boyish look, with wide, bright blue eyes, a large mouth, slightly protruding and pointy ears, a somewhat pointed, thin nose, and a light complexion devoid of freckles or extensive acne. Matt prefers expensive, sophisticated clothes at school and around his parents, with polo shirts and khaki slacks the norm. When his parents want him to look nice, even without a specific event to go to, he'll be dressed in a button-down shirt, dress pants, and black dress shoes. On occasion, he'll come to school wearing his soccer team uniform if he feels the need to show off that he's a team member. Around his friends, however, he drops the expensive outfits in favor of a style more befitting their standards, attending parties with a t-shirt a size too large and baggy jeans. He almost always wears a necklace with a tiny silver crucifix. Biography: Matt Gourlay was born to a privileged family in the most expensive neighborhood in Miami. His parents were natives of Houston, Texas, but moved to Miami a year before their first son, Robert, was born. Matt was born on March 17, 2010, four years younger than his brother, and very quickly set about with his current behavior. Matt was extremely spoiled. His parents, John and Linda, wanted the best for little Matty, and showered him with praise and gifts even when he didn't deserve it. Matt took it all gratefully, understanding by the end of elementary school that he could get his way with his parents very easily and always accepted their gifts, sometimes faking humbleness later on to make it appear that he wasn't just milking them. Matt got into sports at the age of 6, his parents pushing him to begin playing soccer in the assumption that, since Robert excelled at it, his younger brother would as well. Matt enjoyed soccer, was an excellent soccer player. The sports kept him in shape, and he later took up golf and cross-country, joining the school's cross-country team at the beginning of his senior year. Matt doesn't even like his parents. Despite all the false praise and expensive toys he had grown up with, he viewed them as simply "fake" and believes that he would be better off if they just shut up and gave him a new phone. He finds much more comfort in his friends, many of them from the soccer team, and his parents have no clue that their intelligent, nice little religious boy is in fact a foul-mouthed partier and heavy drinker. It wasn't uncommon for him to let his friends help themselves to his parents' liquor cabinet when they were away, then using his rather large allowance to get one of his older friends to buy alcohol and replace what they had taken out. His parents rarely drink, and as such don't notice if a bottle of gin is now a bottle of vodka. Matt does quite well in school, wanting to keep up the illusion of his perfection to his parents and let him act like he's superior to other kids. He rarely finishes a class without a top grade and ran, though he failed, for sophomore class president. He intends to follow his older brother into the Air Force Academy when he graduates. The illusion of perfection that his parents maintain is quickly shattered simply by looking at how Matt treats other students; Matt is a bully. He enjoys the feeling of power he gets from being on top and likes to lord over other students with his wealth and advantages. He often mocks students who are less popular because he knows that they have fewer friends to run back to and get on him, and he prefers to keep his more overt insulting to email and occasional nasty notes taped to someone’s locker (unsigned to avoid being caught). His parents also instilled a belief from an early age that as natural-born white Americans, they were the elite of the country. Growing up in all-white communities enforced this belief, and this manifests in a dislike for members of other, “lower” races. Unfortunately for him, he’s also very cowardly. He’s faced almost no hardships and has never before faced retribution for his actions, so any violence directed towards him is enough to make him cower and back off. As such, he only makes attempts to bully people he’s sure will be too intimidated or timid to fight back. This cowardice manifests in a fear of being picked for the Program; he knows that he’d be at the mercy of all the people he’s bullied, who would be armed to the teeth. Advantages: Matt's an athlete, so he has a strong body and is an excellent runner. He doesn't get fatigued easily, and he can jog a mile without any trouble. He's made many friends and acquaintances in the sports teams, as well as the parties he goes to, so he has many possible allies. Disadvantages: Matt is a coward at heart, hence why he hates trying to intimidate anyone directly. He's never before had to deal with an angry victim in real life, and will likely break down in tears when threatened, especially at the barrel of a gun. Designated Number: Male Student #19 ---- Designated Weapon: Calico Liberty III Conclusion: That very powerful weapon may just give M19 the confidence he needs to make it in The Program. I can definitely forsee him making his way into the top quarter of the pack. The above biography is as written by chitoryu12. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made. Evaluations Kills: 'None '''Killed by: 'John Ferrara 'Collected Weapons: '''Calico Liberty III (assigned weapon, to John Ferrara) '''Allies: '''None '''Enemies: 'Juliet Watanabe, Karl Chalmers, John Ferrara '''Mid-Game Evaluation: '''Matt began the game by loading his weapon in the warehouse and test-firing it on a wall, accidentally blinding and deafening himself with the muzzle flash. As he attempted to recover, Joanne Seguin tripped in front of him and he fired again in reflex, also wetting his pants in fear. Too scared to pull the trigger on her, Joanne calmly took all of his food except a single loaf of bread. Almost immediately after, Benjamin Latimer shined his pistol light in Matt's face, and at the sight of Matt raising his gun Ben fired two shots which missed before fleeing. As Matt tried to recover, he heard the door to the warehouse slide open. Sensing a chance to recover the food Joanne stole from him, he snuck over and held Karl Chalmers at gunpoint, demanding food. Unbeknownst to him, Juliet Watanabe was holding Karl hostage and sending him in to check the warehouse. She fired a warning shot, leading to Matt attempting and failing to shoot back, and easily broke his nose and disabled him. After being allowed to leave, he attempted to kill them but was shot by Juliet in the shoulder. As he escaped the warehouse, John Ferrara, waiting outside the side door after hearing the gunfire, hit him in the face with a banjo, stealing his gun and ammo and shooting him. '''Post-Game Evaluation: '''A pity that this boy failed so quickly. It appears first impressions are not always correct; while Matt appeared to be a contender, his cowardice and poor aim doomed him to an ultimately pathetic death. '''Memorable Quotes: Other/Trivia *Matthew was the first student to be eliminated on The Program. Threads Below is a list of threads that contain Matthew, in chronological order. *M05: START Your Thoughts Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Matthew. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here! *I thought Matthew Gourlay was a great one thread wonder of a character. His opening scene wasn't your usual kind of start. I thought his interactions with every character he came in contact with in that initial thread was just perfect. The fight with Juliet Watanabe, and holding up Karl was quite cool. He was your perfect opening death/kill. A despicable character running away like a coward and then, meeting his doom to a well placed, Banjo to the face. El Kabong! That was priceless. - Keaka *Matthew was one of many characters to follow the V2/3-style plot line of getting killed by another of their own handler's characters in their first thread, but was, I believe, the first to do so on Mini. He wasn't awful, but in a lot of ways he definitely fell prey to issues common in throwaway character. Matthew came off as a little more cliched than I'm usually a fan of, and his narrative often felt like it was making fun of him. He also had a lot of the weird quirks that were in vogue at the time, like colored formatting posts and fake-out death tags. Like I said, Matthew wasn't awful, and he actually got to do a lot more than many characters who followed his progression. His later posts picked up a lot and made him a character I was much more a fan of. I just think a little toning down could've made his impact stronger. - MurderWeasel Category:Characters Category:Program Characters Category:The Program